The Relationship Between the Senses and Perception: An Introduction
“We do not perceive what is ‘out there,’ rather we perceive what is ‘in here,’”, according to Stanley Coren, a neuropsychological professor at the University of British Columbia. Perception and the senses are a commonly misunderstood relationship, where most people hold that the senses only relay external information to our brain. Nevertheless, the brain uses the information from the outside to make new neuronal connections within, meaning that perception is frankly an internal process. In psychology, it’s understood that our five senses can influence how we view the world, thus creating a unique “reality”. Using our eyes, ears, skin, tongue, and nose, we can see, hear, touch, taste, and smell the world around us. Through infinite complex processes, our brain utilizes such information processes, interprets, and creates our reality. The relationship between the senses and perception is vital to understanding our uniqueness as individuals when comprehending the world around us.
The five senses most commonly remembered are sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell. However, the organs responsible for transmitting such information, known as the sense organs, are forgotten. Our eyes, ears, skin, tongue, and nose do more than just experience. They relay vital information to the brain, which is then relayed to those same sense organs to experience reality. According to McGraw Hill Chapter 04: Sensation and Perception, the path from the outside world to the inside is complex, involving one of the most complicated structures on Earth: neurological pathways. Sensation, or the stimulation of our sense organs, is the raw data that our receptors, such as our eyes, receive. Through such receptors, the complex neurological pathways fire synapses to interpret and experience such sensations, also known as perception.
Most have the understanding that senses and perception are fairly straightforward. We commonly believe that our eyes see, and send that image to our brain, where it is understood and accepted as reality. It’s a common misconception, though, as the mental and physical process of interpreting a sensation and having that become one’s only way of understanding the world around us leaves countless possibilities of differentiation, such as a diverse interpretation of the senses, and therefore, one’s unique physical existence. Moreover, our senses work hand-in-hand to form a holistic experience, making it a complex neurological relationship rather than a simple and singular process. According to Erika Rosenberg and Gregory J. Feist, authors of “Sensing and Perceiving Our World,” “how our brains organize and interpret sensory experiences may vary from person to person”. In other words, our experiences are unique in our relationship with our senses. In this chapter, there is considerable detail concerning how different types of sensations have diverse impacts on how one understands reality, meaning that the particular sensation involved may create an entirely new perspective on the world for one person compared to another. This connects to the psychophysical aspect of psychology, or the study of sensation and its relationship to behavioral responses/physical changes and sensory stimuli.
From an alternative perspective, author Rob DeSalle in Our Senses: An Immersive Experience, holds that “Neurobiology has forged a clever understanding of what it means to see, hear, smell, touch, maintain balance, and taste not only mechanically but also in how these senses shape our perception of the world aesthetically, artistically, and musically”. The psychological concept of perception and the senses is extremely diverse, varying from hundreds of thousands of opinions within the scientific community. Although we will all have a varying comprehension of reality, is it somewhat similar to each other?
To fully understand the relationship between the senses and perception, other components must be considered. Perceptual learning, or the process by which sensory systems can respond to stimuli, and how they improve throughout the experience, is key to beginning the long path of knowing how perception comes to be. Though once assumed to only pertain to children, perceptual learning continues into adulthood and through all moments of life, constantly evolving and adapting to new information in our environment. Perceptual learning is crucial during childhood, where we initially are learning to make sense of the world around us and tend to be more inclined to experience positive stimuli. For instance, when children like to touch and grab anything in sight, like playing with sand at a beach and feeling the tiny specs on their fingers, they are participating in perceptual learning. This exposure to environmental stimuli lets our senses feel more “comfortable” with the external world, thus processing such new information with greater accuracy. If our neurons are not constantly multiplying and alternating, they would be unable to process stimulus information, depriving us of fully experiencing sensation.
Suppose you have just awoken when outside your bedroom window, you see a colorful bird perched on a tree branch. Light is hitting the colored object, emitting a photon of electromagnetic radiation. This photon can either be absorbed by a lost photon or reflected through waves into our eyes, giving off a vibrant and unique color. Humans can only see within the range of 400 to 700 nanometers, meaning that the unseen ranges of light contain colors we have never experienced. According to DeSalle, this process of photons and light is only the first step in a very complex process of interpreting what we see.
Once such waves hit our eyes, they enter through our cornea, passing through liquid until they reach the pupil. The coloring surrounding our pupil, the iris, adjusts the size of the pupil to appropriately allow light in, eventually passing through the lens, which bends the rays of light. Finally, the light reaches the retina, transforming it into neural energy, also known as transduction. The McGraw Hill fourth chapter indicates that different receptors of the retina, known as cones and rods, are responsible for converting such light energy into impulses.
Works Cited
DeSalle, R. (2018). Our Senses: An Immersive Experience. Yale University Press
Fahle, M., Poggio, T. (2002). Perceptual Learning. MIT Press
Kingdom, F. A. A., Prins, N. (2010) Psychophysics: A Practical Introduction EB Editors
Rosenberg, E. Feist, G.J. (2009). Psychology: Perspectives and Connections. McGraw Hill.
